Before Dublin: the neighborhoods of San Ramon Village

Today, most people know this part of Dublin simply as "old Dublin."

The neighborhood names that once filled newspaper advertisements and sales brochures—San Ramon Village, Brighton Circle, Glenoaks, Barkley Square, Villa de San Ramon, and Ecco Park—have largely faded from memory. Realtor listings occasionally revive them, but few residents think of these areas as separate neighborhoods.

Yet long before Dublin developed its own identity, these streets were part of something much larger.

Beginning in 1960, developer Volk-McLain transformed former ranchland into San Ramon Village, an ambitious master-planned community that stretched across what are now both Dublin and San Ramon. Schools, shopping centers, parks, utilities, and thousands of homes were planned as part of a single vision for the valley's future.

The neighborhoods on Dublin's west side tell the story of how that vision evolved. What began as a carefully coordinated community built around a handful of floor plans gradually expanded to include new builders, new housing styles, and new ideas about suburban living. By the time the last homes were completed, the original developer had left the business entirely.

The result is a neighborhood that can feel surprisingly varied today. Some streets are lined with modest starter homes from the earliest days of San Ramon Village. Others feature larger homes, different floor plans, and architectural styles introduced years later by competing builders.

Those differences are not accidents. They are the visible record of a community that continued growing long after its creator stepped away.

Mapping San Ramon Village in Dublin

Annotated aerial map showing the boundaries of the San Ramon Village neighborhood in Dublin.
Annotated aerial map showing the historic Dublin neighborhoods that formed the southern half of San Ramon Village. Base imagery from Apple Maps.

Building a village

When construction began in 1960, San Ramon Village was envisioned as a complete community rather than a collection of subdivisions.

The first neighborhoods—San Ramon Village, Brighton Circle, and later Glenoaks—shared a common approach. Most homes were based on a small group of floor plans designed by architect Raymond Dean Conwell. Buyers could choose from different exterior treatments, but beneath the surface many houses shared the same layouts.

Black-and-white 1962 Oakland Tribune newspaper ad showcasing a list of eight homes available for inspection in the Dublin area. The ad includes small illustrations or photos of each model home’s original exterior, along with their names, key features like number of bedrooms and bathrooms, and promotional text inviting buyers to tour the properties.
A 1962 Oakland Tribune ad for Brighton Circle. Although the exterior designs varied, many of the same Raymond Dean Conwell floor plans were shared across Brighton Circle, San Ramon Village, and Glenoaks.

This strategy allowed Volk-McLain to build quickly while still offering variety. Curving streets, neighborhood schools, shopping centers, and community facilities helped create the impression of a unified village rather than a series of separate tracts.

To early residents, that distinction mattered little. Whether a family purchased a home in San Ramon Village or Brighton Circle, they were buying into the same larger community.

Today, those neighborhoods form the historic core of Dublin's postwar development.

A changing vision

By the early 1960s, San Ramon Village was growing rapidly.

As additional land was prepared for development, the community began to attract other builders. Parkwood became one of the first examples, introducing two-story homes and a slightly different interpretation of suburban living.

Volk-McLain also began refining its formula. Barkley Square, introduced in 1964, replaced the familiar Raymond Dean Conwell designs with three new floor plans offered in six exterior styles. Although the homes remained relatively modest in size, the neighborhood reflected an effort to refresh San Ramon Village's housing mix. Later additions, including larger homes aimed at move-up buyers, hinted at the direction the company was beginning to explore before leaving the homebuilding business.

Vintage 1964 San Francisco Chronicle ad featuring the original Hartford model home, complete with a unique garage door design that has since become rare. The ad highlights the distinctive architectural feature, which stands out as a nostalgic nod to mid-century suburban style.
A 1964 San Francisco Chronicle ad for Barkley Square's Hartford model. While the home's size remained comparable to earlier San Ramon Village houses, its design reflected Volk-McLain's effort to refresh the community with new floor plans and architectural styles.

These projects reflected changing expectations among homebuyers. Families increasingly sought larger homes, more amenities, and greater architectural variety than the original neighborhoods had offered only a few years earlier.

The uniform village of 1960 was beginning to evolve into something more diverse.

When the builder moved on

The most significant change came in 1965.

After creating San Ramon Village and guiding its early growth, Volk-McLain withdrew from the homebuilding business. The departure might have ended the story of many planned communities, but San Ramon Village continued to grow.

Instead of abandoning the project, new builders stepped into the framework Volk-McLain had already established.

An August 1965 Oakland Tribune ad promoting homes from multiple builders. As Volk-McLain prepared to exit homebuilding, references to "San Ramon Village" increasingly gave way to the broader "San Ramon" identity.

Duc & Elliott completed Villa de San Ramon on land originally associated with Barkley Square. Proud Homes introduced Ecco Park, bringing a different marketing strategy, different floor plans, and a different vision of suburban living. Other builders would continue developing land throughout the valley in the years that followed.

Vintage 1965 advertisement for Villa de San Ramon in Dublin, California, featuring the Casa Serena model. The ad includes a black-and-white illustration of the home’s exterior elevation—showing a low-pitched roof and simple façade—alongside a floor plan highlighting multiple bedrooms, two bathrooms, and an open-concept living area typical of mid-century suburban homes.
A 1966 Daily Review ad for Villa de San Ramon's Casa Serena model. Built by Duc & Elliott after Volk-McLain's departure, the tract represented a new chapter in the continuing development of San Ramon Village.

Although the homes changed, the underlying plan remained remarkably intact. The streets, schools, shopping centers, and community infrastructure envisioned during the early years continued to guide development.

Volk-McLain had built the framework. Other builders completed the village.

The legacy of San Ramon Village

Today, it can be difficult to see where one historic tract ends and another begins.

Street signs no longer announce Brighton Circle or Barkley Square. Few residents identify with the names that once appeared in newspaper advertisements. Instead, the area has become part of a larger Dublin identity that emerged as the city grew during the decades that followed.

Yet the old neighborhoods still reveal the history of San Ramon Village to anyone willing to look closely.

The modest homes of San Ramon Village and Glenoaks reflect the community's beginnings as an affordable suburban experiment. Barkley Square's updated designs and Villa de San Ramon's larger homes illustrate how San Ramon Village evolved during the mid-1960s. Ecco Park captures the moment when new builders brought fresh ideas into an established framework.

Together, these neighborhoods tell the story of a community that existed before modern Dublin—a place planned as a single village, built by many hands, and ultimately absorbed into the city that grew around it.

Tracts in San Ramon Village

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